Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VIII. - Mines

Collection:: Economics Books

116 OHAPTER VIII. Raniganj than in the Jharia field. Other aboriginal workers live at varying distances from the coalfields. Some inhabit villages in the neigh- bourhood and walk into the coalfields to live and work there for varying periods. Thus some return to their villages at least once a week, whilst others return for comparatively long periods when agricultural work is plentiful. Wherever their permanent home may lie, nearly all the aboriginal workers are also agriculturalists and spend a considerable part of their working hours in every year in agriculture. The non- aboriginal workers form an increasing minority of the labour force. They are drawn mainly from Bihar, the north-east of the Central Provinces and the east of the United Provinces and are known as C, P* miners, Possessed of greater adaptability than the aboriginals, they are accus- tomed to the use of explosives, can be employed on coal-cutting machines, and are more assiduous and regular workers. The introduction of more modern methods of mining and the tendency to more systematisation of working hours give this type of worker an increasing advantage over aboriginal labour. While nearly all these men look to other parts of India as their “home ” and have some connection with agricultural land there, they are not usually agriculturalists in the same sense as the aboriginals. They approximate more nearly to perennial factory workers and may properly be regarded as miners dependent on mining for their livelihood. Recruitment of Labour. We have observed that, for the most part, perennial factories have now passed the stage at which it is necessary to go beyond the factory gate to secure labour. Conditions in the coalfields, however, are very different. Although, in respect of the demand for labour, the position has become easier in recent years, many of the workers have still to be engaged away from the colliery. In consequence colliery proprietors still find it necessary to spend, directly or indirectly, substantial sums in recruiting. Most collieries recruit through a contractor. Some make a special contract for the supply of labour, which is then employed and paid by the mine management ; but the more usual method is to employ a Talsing contractor to whom are assigned other important functions which we discuss later. Two other systems exist : under one, a miner sardar brings a gang to the mine and is responsible to the manager for the work undertaken by the gang ; under the other, the management sends out its own recruiters. Whichever the system adopted, the actual procedure of securing recruits is much the same. The recruiter or his agent visits the village—which is generally the one with which he has a steady connection—makes advances, pays railway fares and brings the workers to the coalfield. An increasing number of miners find their way to the coalfields from outside without the assistance of g recruiter. This class includes some of those who come from farthest away, e.g., from the United Provinces. These workers frequently return year after year to the same mine. —————— i — —_ . rei mittee ——— * The letters are not an abbreviation of “ Central Provinces” in this case, but denote Compressed Pellets »* a commonly used form of gunpowder.

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